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North Korea warns of action over US military drill

Choe Sang-Hun

SEOUL: North Korea on Saturday warned the top US military commander in South Korea that if the United States pressed ahead with joint military exercises with South Korea scheduled to begin next month, it could set off a war in which US forces would "meet a miserable destruction."

The warning came as the US and South Korean militaries planned to kick off their Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint war games, beginning early next month. The allies regularly conduct such joint military drills, and whenever they happen, North Korea warns of war and threatens to deliver a devastating blow to US and South Korean troops.

North Korea's harsh reaction, though not unusual, came amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula after the North's third nuclear test on February 12. Washington and its allies are pushing for more sanctions against North Korea while the North vows to take unspecified steps to retaliate against such sanctions.

"If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle again under the cover of 'defensive and annual ones' at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour," Pak Rim-su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, said Saturday in a message to General James D. Thurman, the US commander in South Korea. "You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction."

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The text of the message was carried by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency.

There was no immediate reaction from the US military.

Panmunjom, a village straddling the western border between the two Koreas, remains the sole contact point between North Korea and the US military. The United States fought on South Korea's side during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula technically at war. About 28,500 US troops remain in South Korea to help safeguard the truce.

North Korea and the US military exchange messages through Panmunjom, established at the time of the Korean War armistice. The US military uses the Panmunjom channel to inform North Korea of its planned annual military drills with South Korea, which it says are for defensive purposes.

Although North Korea's state-run media has always carried official statements condemning the exercises as rehearsals for invasion, it was unclear how often the North has also responded directly through Panmunjom. The last time it did so was in August, when the United States and South Korea conducted a joint military exercise.

After its December satellite launching and its subsequent nuclear test, North Korea has stepped up its bellicose language. In the past week, North Korean media have reported that the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, has been making a round of visits to military units. During one of those visits, Mr Kim vowed that if war broke out, his troops would "blow away the bastion of aggression without a trace," the KCNA reported Saturday.

When the United States and South Korea conduct joint military drills, North Korea counters with its own military exercises, ordering its people to stay alert. Anti-American messages, already a daily fare in the North, increase at those times as the leadership uses a sense of crisis to strengthen popular support.